Silvertonians wave to Town Public Works Supervisor Gilbert Archuleta as he plows snow on Sunday.

Photo by Criss Furman

The San Juan Mountains were walloped by two major winter storms over the weekend, dumping more than two feet of snow on Silverton and 48 inches in 48 hours at Silverton Mountain Ski Area.

According to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), two separate storms hit the region beginning Saturday. The first storm came from the south, and it brought around 10 inches of wet, heavy snow in town and more at higher elevations. That was followed by a second storm that arrived late Sunday night and lasted through Tuesday. That storm brought several pulses of snowfall and dropped well over a foot in places. The second storm came from the northwest, where it originated in the Gulf of Alaska, according to NOAA.

U.S. Highway 550 over Molas and Coal Bank passes was closed most of the day Monday after several avalanches at Lime Creek, burying 400 feet of highway 10 feet deep.

“Pretty much the whole Lime Creek drainage released all at once” at about 8:30 a.m. Monday morning, said Mark Gober, Silverton-based forecaster for the Colorado Avalanche Information Center.

On Tuesday, there were spot closures of Red Mountain Pass as avalanche migration work continued there.

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